The Long Goodbye

The long goodbye

Guy Kortsarz

March 5, 2018

1 The long goodbye, ﬁlm analysis

1.1 Killing the myth of the hard boiled detective in The long goodbye

Here are the words of Chandler in his essay: ”The Simple Art of Murder.” He writes, ”But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.” The ﬁlm is based on the book ”The long goodbye” by Chandler. It changes it so much that maybe an adaptation is not a proper word. In the ﬁlm Marlow kills Lennox. In the book, Lennox kills Marlow. Boy is the detective of The long goodbye far from this description of Chandler. This myth is completely debunked.

1.2 A brief description of the plot

The film is set in Los Angeles. Its late at night and the spoiled cat of Marlowe is hungry. Marlowe is a private investigator. In the store Marlowe fails to find the quality food that his cat is used to. Marlowe tries to cheat his cat. He buys cheap food, but puts it in an empty can of the quality food. The cat is not fooled. He sniffs once and then, as if with contempt, the cat disappears and we no longer see the cat in the movie. Philip Marlowe is visited by his close childhood friend Terry Lennox. Lennox asks an unusual favor. He wants Marlowe to drive him from Los Angeles to Tijuana, a border town near San-Diego in Mexico. Loyal Marlowe agrees.

1 When Marlowe returns, two police detectives await. He does not care for the way they talk to him and does not cooperate. They say Lennox murdered his wife, Sylvia. Sylvia was very rich. The policeman arrest Marlowe but after three days in jail, he is release without any explanation. When Mar- lowe insists the police says that Lennox committed suicide in Mexico. Hence the case is close. Marlowe does not believe them and is sure Lennox was murdered. He continues the investigate, with nobody else seeming to care. Then Marlowe is hired for a seemingly unrelated case. Eileen Wade, a platinum-blonde wife of the famous writer Roger Wade, hires him to find Wade. Roger Wade is totally over the hill. He is alcoholic that pretends to be tough. In fact he has a writers block. This character is played by Sterling Hayden, a perfect pick that reminds us of Hemingway (they look alike). Remark: If you do not think about Sterling Hayden as Hemingway, note that this old man dies in the sea. Quiet related to Hemingway dont you think? Wade is completely self-destructive. Marlowe searches him quite efficiently and when he visits a private rehab clinic, Wade is there. Marlowe has located Roger Wade. All of a sudden the two stories collide. Eileen Wades knew Lennox and Sylvia. The two pairs were friends. They leaved in the same gated community. A gangster names Marty Augustine comes to the house of Marlowe. It turns out that Lennox illegally carried money for Marty. Marty says Lennox stole the last shipment. He wants the money back. Marlowe that does not like being treated this way, just clowns around. Marlow visits Eileen wade, and while the pair is eating, Roger Wade commits suicide by entering deep into the ocean and drowning. Eileen says that Wade had an affair with Sylvia, the wife of Lennox. Eileen raises the possibility that Wade killed Sylvia . Augustine takes Marlowe against his will the the house of Augustine. He wants to mutilate him. Marlowe is saved when the money of Marty appears all of a sudden. Something like a week ago, he got a 5000 dollars bill from Terry. Who recovered the money of Marty? Marlow tries to talk to the police in Mexico. The police assures him that Lennox is dead. When he comes back, he finds out that the house of the Wades was sold and he notices that Eileen is driving somewhere. Marlowe returns to Mexico. He convinces the local authorities to tell the truth. They confess to have fabricated Terry’s suicide. Lennox is in fact alive. And is still in Mexico. Marlowe finds Terry, who admits to killing his wife Sylvia. Angry Marlowe shoots Lennox that falls into a nearby pool.

2 1.3 Pathetic characters

A truly modernistic neo-noir. Altman really changed the genre completely. His Philip Marlowe is nothing like we have ever seen. As I said Marlow of the past is the ”I do not take shit from no on” hard boiled kind. Here Marlow is confused, disoriented, humiliated, and does not care. Saying all the time ”Its OK by me”. It looks like a character from the fifties that, say, slept 20 years and is in the seventies (the book takes place in the fifties). At the end Marlow tries to impose the morality of the fifties on the seventies. In fact he is the only person in the film with a conscience. Many say that the film treats Marlowe with contempt. It is not Marlowe of The big sleep. Or of Murder My Sweet done in 1944 by Edward Dmytryk. Their Marlowe was a hero. A tough man that shows integrity and cares deeply about the case. The Marlowe in The long goodbye is poor, as he has nothing but contempt for money. See how he just gives away the 5000 dollars that Terry sent him, just to find Terry. When Marty (the gangster) visits Marlow at Marlowe’s home, Marty makes fun of Marlow for being poor. The fact that he is poor is reflected in his neighbors. His nearest neighbors are young girls that are constantly both naked and high. Marlowe says they probably are doing yoga, And that ”Its OK by me”. Since Marlow has contempt for any powerful individual, this is his opinion on Marty as well. Albeit Marty is a dangerous killer. Marlow clowns around. When they take his photo in the police station he makes faces. He paints his face black in the police station. This was an improvisation by Elliot Gould. He makes a fool of himself and pokes his nose against the window, at the police station. When Eileen tells him that she likes how he looks, he makes a face. He realizes that Wade had an affair with Sylvia and complains like a child to the police. The police tells him they knew. He was just not important enough to be told. He complain in a childish manner. Saying that Terry was murdered and that the police does not care. The police see’s him as a clown that does not let the police do its job and wastes their time. The above scene with the police was a total humiliation of Marlowe. He is humiliated many times. He is badly hit by one of the goons of Marty. He hides from Marty in the bushes, and again he hides in the bushes in the clinic. He looks completely stupid when he chases Eileen when she rides a car and he is on foot. Of course he cant catch her. He shouts Mrs Wade Mrs Wade. But she ignores and humiliates him. When he goes to the store to buy food to his cat a person there makes fun of him saying he does not need a cat, he has a girl. Marlowe does not speak clearly throughout the film.

3 He mumbles to himself and most of all repeats ”Its OK with Me” about everything. He says its OK with me about the high neighbors girls, about Roger Wade inviting him for drinks. About being arrested, about Mrs Wade selling her house. About everything. In addition dialogues overlap and at times we cant hear what Marlow says. Marlowe throws wisecracks all the time. But the people around him find the wisecracks not funny and goofy. He looks to them as a pathetic man. The film does not respect the old noirs as it is situated in the seventies. Therefore Marlowe is not dressed like the old Marlowe’s. Clearly, nobody wore a hat in the seventies. Unlike the old Philip Marlowe in The long goodbye Marlowe always wears black with a suit and a tie. In the first scene, we see him sleeping in his cloth. The slob. His cloth look old and dirty. When he goes out in 3 in the morning to buy food for his cat, he puts on a tie. He later refuses to take of the tie when Roger Wade asks him to. The tie is an existential thing for him. In Millers Crossing the hero tries to have a hat on him, as he plays a gangster. And in gangster films the hero wore a hat. The hero of ”Millers Crossing” feels that if he does not wear a hat, he does not fit the genre. Thus the hat is discussed frequently. Marlowe acts like if he does not wear a ties, or if he does not smoke, he does not fit the film. This is a parody. Ties and film noirs do not mix. Only one character in another movie reminds me of Marlow The ”Dude” in ”The Big Lebowski” of the Cohen brothers that is abused in the entire film. The ”Dude” is a person from the 60’s in another time. A lazy person. And lives in a completely sleazy world. Only, the films ending shows that Marlowe isn’t inept like the ”Dude”

1.4 Smoking by Marlowe

Marlowe smokes throughout the movie, and its never related to sex. Roger Wade calls him Marlboro as this is the type of cigarets he smokes. Altman clearly makes a mockery of the established relation in ﬁlm noirs between sex and cigarets. In fact Marlowe is not interested in sex. Does not look at the naked girls in his neighborhood. Does not try to seduce Eileen. The fact that he is not attracted to the fatal woman is an attack on the myth of ﬁlm noirs. He likes to drink all the time and smoke all the time. For no reason. Probably just because ”Its OK by him”.

1.5 They are all corrupt or incompetent

The young generation is represented by the stoned girls. They are not able to communicate with other people. The high society by the corrupt Eileen and Lennox. The artist Roger Wade is a drunk with a writers block. Wade says the cliche that not being able to write is

4 like being impotent. Speaking about drunk people Raymond Chandler was a drunk. He also had a lot of cats which may have put the idea of the cat in the film (since it is not in the book). Ernest Hemingway was a drunk. Sterling Hayden that plays Roger Wade looks like Hemingway. The police in the USA is lazy. Happy to jump on the explanation that Terry killed himself. The police in Mexico is corrupt. Is bribed by Terry. Terry is a psychotic killer. Marty is even worse. He behaves like an animal. We see this when he attacks his girl friend. Since Marlow is portrayed as a loser, there is nobody to identify with in the film, a thing that made the film, a box office flop. But with the years it got the respect of the critics, while the public still does not care too much for the film.

1.6 What’s with the cat?

He searches for his cat throughout the movie, even trying to speak to the stoned girls. They do not answer. The film is later filled with dogs in a truly excessive way. The enemies of the cat abide. A dog stops the car of Marlowe standing in the middle of the street. Eileen has a Doberman that hates Marlowe. In Mexico we see many dogs including a couple of dog humping, until the female gets angry. Dogs all over. Like rubbing the nose of Marlowe for loosing his cat. When he meets with Lennox at the end he mentions the cat again. Like the film is obsessed with the cat. Why? The answer to this question is central to the film and will be discussed later. The issue is that you can not understand it by watching The long goodbye. You need to watch at least one other film.

1.7 Cinematic tools for disorientation

1.7.1 Light

Altman wants to influence the audience, so that they feel as bad as Marlowe feels. For that you need to be a human Engineer of emotions. You should know how cinema tools affect the audience. And Altman knows. The Long Goodbye, looks very cheap. The colors of LA look muddy and unclean. Altman said that he wanted LA to look like it looks on old postcards. The cheap looks was achieved by over-exposing the frames to light. This gave pastel looks to the colors. Like in cheap films. They life was sucked away from the colors that look ”dirty”. One remark is in order, In the last scene when Marlowe comes back to Mexico after he

5 solved the puzzle, the colors of the ﬁlm become clear. Like the change that happens with Marlow.

1.7.2 The location of the camera

The camera is not located at the place that the interesting things are happening. When Marlow is at the police station he has to give his prints. He is located in a room with one view mirror. Higher ranking policemen watch him, but Marlow cant see them. The camera is located many times in the room of the higher ranked officers. Marlow touches the glass separating the rooms leaving his entire hand as a black mark on the glass (they took his finger prints and he painted his face dark, and so his hands are dark as well). One time when the camera looks at Marlow from the other room, the hand black sign he put in the window completely covers him. He is in the dark, so to say. It is not natural to put the camera in a less important place and not where the action is. Its not natural to see Marlow so many times via a distorting glass. This is quite systematic. When Marlowe returns home from the police, we see the camera in the wrong place. The camera is located in the house of the stoned girls. When Marlowe arrives we see him from afar. He looks very small. This shot say ”Marlow is small”. Here are the two main cases that the camera is misplaced. By the way, the camera never stops so what we see constantly changes. And in both cases we see people through a glass, distorting their image. Wade tells Marlow to step out and Marlow walks along the sea shore. The camera focuses on Marlow. But the camera should have been focused on Eileen and Roger that are arguing. We find this just because the camera constantly moves. It takes a few steps back and then we see the reflection of the arguing pair. We can also hear them. Marlowe is in a sense humiliated again. He does not know anything about the argument between the two. In Chinatown, at no second do we know more that the private detective. Knowing more than the detective is usually used to get irony. Not what Polanski was looking for in Chinatown The camera movement was wrong. It only brought us to a reflection of the pair. A normal camera movement would have shown the pair themselves. There are other purposely wrong camera movements in the film. And this is intentional: to induce disorientation. Another case is after the argument. Eileen invites Marlow to dinner, albeit he remains uninterested in her sexually. A blasphemy against the old noirs. Then Wade decides to kill himself. The camera is wrongly placed inside the house with Eileen and Marlowe drinking an eating. Only at the last minute since the camera always moves, we see at the back ground that Roger Wade is entering the Ocean. Again the glass distorts him. Roger kills himself and Eileen and Marlowe cant do anything about it. The

6 only remaining thing is the cane Wade used. The dog ﬁnds it and carries it in his mouth. In summary, the cinematography is partially based shots that are far from point of view shots from Mallow’s point of view. This will make us identify with Marlow. We do not see most times what Marlowe sees. Many times he is shot outside a window and so the vision is distorted by the glass.

1.7.3 Failure of love in the song

The song was written for the ﬁlm. Here are the lyrics. There’s a long goodbye And it happens everyday When some passerby Invites your eye To come her way. Even as she smiles A quick hello You’ve let her go You’ve let the moment ﬂy Too late you’d turn your head You’d know you’ve said The long goodbye. Can you recognize the pain On some other street Two people meet As in a dream Running for a plane Through the rain. If the heart is quicker than the eye They could be lovers Until they die. It’s too late to try When a missed hello Becomes the long goodbye. The long goodbye means something that ends. Mainly death (the end of life) but not only. See:

1. There’s a long goodbye And it happens everyday When some passerby Invites your eye To come her way. Even as she smiles A quick hello You’ve let her go You’ve let the moment ﬂy. It happens every day. You do not give love a chance and the moment ﬂies.

2. Too late you’d turn your head You’d know you’ve said The long goodbye. The loss of love again.

3. Can you recognize the pain On some other street Two people meet As in a dream Running for a plane Through the rain. If the heart is quicker than the eye They could be lovers Until they die. It’s too late to try When a missed hello Becomes the long goodbye. Its too late for love. Because they waited too much time to say hello. And so love has ended (or like the song puts it: The long goodbye).

7 1.7.4 Failure of love in the ﬁlm

What love if at all did we see in the ﬁlm?

1. The love of Marlowe and the cat is doomed. The cat left because Marlow betrayed him.

2. The love of Terry and Sylvia (if it existed once) is gone. He killed her.

3. The most clear case of true love seems to be the one between Terry and Eileen. This love is doomed. Terry is dead when the ﬁlm ends.

4. Eileen and Roger were clearly in love at a time. And she idolized his writing talent once. But she does not love him anymore and plans to escape with Lennox. Roger feels that without love, or ability to write, life is not worth it. So he kills himself.

5. It is hinted that there was an aﬀair between Roger and Sylvia. If this indeed ever existed, it ended with the death of both of them.

6. There is a clear male bonding and aﬀection. A sort of love between two childhood friends. The male childhood bond between Marlow and Terry. This ends terribly: Marlow kills Terry.

7. When we ﬁrst meet Marty and his girl friend, they seem in love. This is over after he attacks her.

Only despair. The long goodbye, as the ending of love, awaits in every corner. No hope. Well this book is on darkness in American cinema.

1.7.5 Playing The long goodbye

The song The long goodbye appears many times and is interpreted in many ways. We ﬁrst hear it in the background when Marlow is with his cat. But without lyrics. This is clearly a Jazz piece. Then it is played on a sitar as a leitmotif for the all-girl hippy commune neighbors of Marlow. The interpretation ﬁts the sixties. The stoned girls are taken directly from the sixties with their Yoga and their make sex and not war. Fragments of the song just appear in the soundtrack every ones in a while. Marlow himself while feeding the cat, sings a part of the song. When the girlfriend of Marty opens the radio, the song ”The long goodbye” plays.

8 When Marlowe returns from jail he goes into a bar, A bartender plays the song over the piano. He says he is trying to learn the song The long goodbye. Including the words. He plays it on the piano and sings. In Mexican marching band plays the song. Its rare that one song is the soundtrack of a film. It is a melancholic song. Invoking a sad felling on the audience. The long goodbye is not the only song in the film. The film opens and ends with the song Hooray For Hollywood. Altman pays back a tribute to Hollywood. Contempt or not, destroying the genre or not, Altman does cite the source of the film. Without film noirs there would not be The long goodbye.

1.8 Screenplay: unclear

As usual in films of Altman, the dialogues are overlapping. This makes us unable to grasp in full dialogue which is always frustrating to an audience. When we are robed of something we usually get in full in a film, this makes us not only helpless. It is even irritating. The screenplay is unclear. I saw the film many times. Yet I dont understand it fully. It does not make sense. Clearly you need to know the old film noir to have a chance to understand the film. You need to know the myth of Philip Marlowe. And how was he presented before. Otherwise you can understand that the film is satire and parody. This will make the film look serious which is not the correct interpretation. Here are some unclear details in the script.

1. Eileen has an aﬀair with Lennox. We have no idea how it started, and especially why? The wife of Lennox Sylvia is rich. What can Eileen that is not that rich give him, that Silvia cant?

2. Why did Terry kill his wife in less brutal way? He did not need to Bush her face like Marlow calls it. The extreme cruelty of Terry makes Marlow more bitter.

3. Did Roger and Sylvia really had an aﬀair? Its unclear when the movie ends.

4. In the ﬁnal talk between Lennox and Marlowe, Lennox says that he and Eileen have a huge amount of money. From what source? He cant have the money of Sylvia, since he pretends to be dead. Its completely unclear why are they rich.

5. Lennox in an irrational act almost begs to be discovered. He ﬁrst sends 5000 dollars and a note to Marlowe. Marlow ﬁnds out that terry is dead and says to himself: well maybe he sent it before he killed himself.

9 But Marty that sees the 5000 dollars, says that this kind of bill is rare, and there were four 5000 dollar bills, in the money Lennox was carrying for him. Then a week later the money of Marty is brought back to him. Who sent back the money to Marty? This happens several days after Marlowe is released from prison, and Lennox is said to have killed himself while Marlowe was in prison. Who send Marty the money? Clearly since Terry behave irrationally, Marlowe strongly suspects that Lennox is alive. Why would Lennox risk such a thing? Why he did not send the money to Marty when he send the 5000 dollars to Marlowe? Why wait? Why expose yourself?

6. Its completely unclear way Eileen hires Marlowe. Her husband hits her. She does not love him anymore. He is constantly drunk, and she intends to leave him. Still she hires Marlowe to ﬁnd him. Why?

7. How did Sylvia ﬁnd out that Lennox carries money for Marty?

8. Does Eileen know that Lennox is a criminal? We don’t know

9. Wade claims that Marty owes him 50000 dollars. But Mary says that Wade owes HIM money. Marty even visits the house of Silvia to speak on the money Roger owns him. How did Wade even get in touch with this gangster? And what for?

10. The role of the psychiatrist and the clinic is completely out of context. And does not Ada-Vance the plot. Wade does not seem to want to stop drinking. So why did he go to the rehabilitation clinic? Why do they release him? He is still a drunk. The scene with the psychiatrist is completely unclear. The psychiatrist claims that Wade owes him money. How come? He did not cure Roger. Why does he owe him money?

11. The ﬁlm for a long time has no violence in it. This is why the scene with Marty and his girl friend comes as one of the most shocking scenes of the history of cinema. Marty wants to make a point. He invites his girlfriend (he also has a wife and three children). Then truly out of the blue, Marty breaks a Coca cola bottle on her face. The surprise makes this one of the most shocking moments in cinema history. Marty says: ”I did it to her and I love her. You I do not even like”. Enough said. Marlowe does not even move a muscle. He is simply not afraid. If anything we feel that he has nothing but contempt for Marty. When Marty brings him to his own home, he threatens to cut the penis of Marlowe. Still Marlowe does not move a muscle and does not seem afraid even a bit. This is not

10 credible. Everybody in such a case would have the fear of Satan in him. Marlow is not afraid, looking like a mad person. Marlowe is only saved since the money is sent back to Marty a few seconds before Marty starts mutilating Marlowe. But Marlow did not know it would happen. He SHOULD have been extremely afraid.

12. Why does Lennox carry money for Marty. Why carry money? What is the transfer of money for? The logical assumption is that this is money laddering. Marty pays someone for some shady deal. But the ﬁlm skips every explanation on what is Marty dealing, and with whom. Why does Marty needs a person such as Lennox to do things like that for him? He has enough goons. Lennox is not a person that can defend himself from robbery. His goons are a better ﬁt to carry money.

13. Lennox and Sylvia and Eileen and Roger leave in the same gated community. Is it a coincidence that Lennox appears in Marlowe’s ﬂat asking for a favor and later a woman that lives in the same gated community hires Marlow? Seems too strange to be a coicidenace. But any explanation would be pure speculation.

14. Reminding you of what the genre is(?) Those who acted in film noirs are among others Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bog- art, Richard Widmark, Peter Lorre, Fred MacMurray, Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, and William Holden. Women that acted in noirs include Gene Tierney, Lauren Bacall, Joan Crawford and Rita Hayworth and Barbara Stanwyck. The gate keeper of the gated community insists on impressions of actors from the time of the classic noirs. He imitates James Stuart and Cary Grant. And also Barbara Stanwyck. Well, Barbara Stanwyck makes sense. But the gate keeper wants to remind Marlow of the noirs he is completely off mark. James Stuart and Cary Grant? Grant was a candidate to act in The big sleep. But neither Stuart nor Carry Grant ever acted in film noir. Its true that they were at their peak in this era. But the gate keeper should at least have imitated Humfry Bogart (who is quite easy to imitate).

1.9 False redemption

A strange thing happens toward the end. Philip ”Its OK by Me” Marlow tracks Terry Lennox in Mexico. They speak. Marlowe: Hello Terry.

11 Terry: If one person would have track me it had to be you. Come on, have a drink. Marlowe: You killed your wife. Terry: I killed her. But you cant call it murder. I had to. She found out about the affair with Eileen. She was hysterical. She was going to go to the cops. I hit her. I did not want to kill her. Marlowe: I saw the picture Terry. You bushed her face. Terry: She left me no choice. She knew I was carrying money for Augustine. Now the police thinks I am dead. I gave the money back to Augustine, so he is not after me. Case closed. Marlowe: You used me Terry: What are friends for? I was in a jam so I asked your help. Nobody cares. Come on have a drink. Marlowe: Nobody cares except me. Terry: This is the problem with you Marlowe. You are a born looser. You will never learn. Marlowe: Yes I even lost my cat. Then Marlow shoots Lennox that falls dead into a pool. Marlow spits in contempt on the floor. This goes against all the movie. Like the last scene in the movie The searchers that contradicts in a completely illogical way the rest of the film. At this moment, we see a genre redemption for Marlow. He all of a sudden has pride. Does not forgive being made a full. Does not forgive a murderer. Says that he is the only one that cares. This is exactly the Philip Marlow of the old films. He returns to his senses. And he kills his evil friend. And the film is very clear (not exposed to extra light) in this scene. But a rebel like Altman will not let the film end with redemption. Marlow did not change. In the last shot he clowns around with an harmonica. Was he really redeemed? I wish I could tell you.

1.10 The third man

The third man is a classic ﬁlm noir directed by Carol Reed in 1946 in Vienna. Shortly after the war. In The third man Holly Martins is an American writer of westerns. They tell him that his

12 childhood friend Harry Lime was killed in a car accident Vienna. Martins comes to Vienna to pay respect to Harry. He comes to the funeral. At the beginning Holly was told that after Lime died, two men carried him from the street. But then he finds out that there was The third man carrying dead Lime. His next book is to be called The third Man. And would be a thriller. About to go home, Martins notices something strange. There is something in a completely dark alley. He might have never known what it is, but for a cat. Harry Lime owns a cat. The cat goes to the alley in search of his master. This grabs the attention of Martin. And that turns to be Harry Lime. The face of Lime (Welles) is all of a sudden in full light in classic and somewhat shocking shot. Very creepy and surprising shot. Martin finds that Lime is alive because of the loyal cat of Lime. It turns out that Lime faked his death and became a cruel criminal in the war time. Stole penicillin and sold it black market. But because of modification he made, this penicillin is deadly. Lime is a murderer. Martin and Lime have a talk. Lime tries to justify his acts. They are on the famous big Wheel in Vienna. And they are on the top. They look downstairs and the people look like dots. Lime tells Martin: If one of these dots were to disappear, would you even feel it? Martins and the police plan to trap Lime. The police shoots and wounds Lime. Lime runs in a tunnel completely in the dark. He tries to climb the stairs to exit the tunnel frantic and petrified. He is badly wounded. All this time we hear a sound of water. Martins catches with Lime and shots him in the back. A truly cruel scene. Lime falls into water. Dead. Anna, the lover of Lime does not forgive Martins.

1.11 The essence of The long goodbye

The cat of The long goodbye should make sense now. The subject of both The long goodbye and The third man is loyalty and betrayal. The cat at the start of The long goodbye left because Marlowe betrayed him. Marlowe is reminded of his betrayal frequently because of the many dogs in The long goodbye. The number of dogs is so large that it can not be for no reason. Harry Lime is found because his loyal cat loves him. Films about loyalty. The cat is the one who starts a series of event in which Lime dies at the end. Here the loyalty served Lime badly. Of course, Lime is very disloyal towards Martins. As we can see the two ﬁlms are very similar.

1. Both talk on a childhood friend. These childhood friends becomes criminals.

13 2. Both Lennox and Lime have dealings with gangsters.

3. Both Martins and Marlowe shoot and kill their childhood friends Lime and Lennox.

4. After being shot, both Lennox and Lime fall into water.

5. In both ﬁlms we have a Mexican band playing. Indeed in The third man there is such a band as well.

6. In both ﬁlms the cat has a vital role regarding loyalty.

7. Both Lime and Lennox try to justify their crimes.

8. In The long goodbye Marlowe does not care about money and is poor. In The third man poverty is all around.

9. In both ﬁlms Marlowe and Martins see the atrocities committed by their friend. Mar- tins visits hospitals to see children that died because of Lime. Marlowe saw how brutal Lennox is, because he saw the smashed face of Sylvia.

10. In both cases the ﬁlm are visually-stylish, paranoid. in harsh economic times, about moral corruption, in a crumbling world,

11. The soundtrack of The third man is a recurring theme (albeit not a song) that later become famous. In The long goodbye. the song The long goodbye is a recurring theme that occupies almost all the score.

1.12 The ending

The end of The long goodbye and of The third man are very similar. Both Holly and Marlowe shoot their betraying best friends, in a cruel way, and then walk in some boulevard. A woman appears in both ﬁlms. But in both ﬁlms the woman passes them bye and they do not talk to the woman. Both man continue walking.

1.13 Ignorance is no solution

Today the critics love the film but the general public still hates it. This is because knowledge here is vital. You can not enjoy The long goodbye without knowing the history of film noir. You cant understand that its a parody. And then the film does not make sense at all. The critics know the history and know The third man even if they did not make the connection. Clearly back deep inside their minds this connection is established. Liking the film requires knowledge.

14 Politician tells us that the American ”folks” are wise. But is not part of being wise, knowing your own culture? This is clearly pandering by the politicians. The Americans I meet (basically all of them) have no clue with regards to what they call ”old films”. The American invented Jazz, Westerns and film noirs. This is part of the heritage of the USA. But since ignorance is made acceptable by politicians, the film The long goodbye is lost on the public.